V., and, after having ruled the church during || pel among the Tartars and other eastern ŋafive weeks, was succeeded by Peter Julian, bishop of Tusculum, who enjoyed that high dignity about eight months, and is distinguished in the papal list by the name of John XXI. The see of Rome continued vacant for about six months after the death of the last-mentioned pontiff, but was at length filled, in November, 1277, by John Caietan, of the family of Ursini, cardinal of St. Nicolas, whose name he adopted for his papal title. This famous pontiff (as has been already observed) augmented greatly both the opulence and authority of the bishops of Rome, and had formed vast projects, which his undaunted courage and his remarkable activity would have enabled him, in all probability, to execute with success, had not death blasted his hopes, and disconcerted his ambitious schemes.

to decide their quarrels, augmented the papal || persecute, convert and vanquish, the growing jurisprudence with a new body of laws, enti- tribe of heretics. tled the Sixth Book of the Decretals, declared war against the illustrious family of Colonna, who disputed his title to the pontificate;* in a word, exhibited to the church, and to Europe, a lively image of the tyrannical administration of Gregory VII., whom he perhaps surpassed in arrogance. This was the pontiff who, in 1300, instituted the famous jubilee, which, since that time, has been regularly celebrated in the Roman church at fixed periods. But the consideration of this institution, which was so favourable to the progress of licentiousness and corruption, as also the other exploits of Boniface, and his deplorable end, belong to the history of the following century.‡

XIX. Of the religious societies that arose in this century, some are now entirely suppressed, while others continue to flourish, and are in high repute. Among the former we may reckon the Humiliati, (a title expressive of great humility and self-abasement,) whose origin may be traced to a much earlier period than the present century, though their order was confirmed and new-modelled by Innocent III., who subjected it to the rule of St. Benedict. These humble monks became so shockingly licentious in process of time, that, in 1571, pope Pius V. was obliged to dissolve their society. We may also place, in the list of suppressed fraternities, the Jacobins, who were XVIII. In the Lateran council that was erected into a religious order by Innocent III.,† holden in 1215, a decree had passed, by the and who, in this very century, not long after the advice of Innocent III., to prevent the intro- council of Lyons, were deprived of their charduction of new religions, by which were meant ter; and also the Valli-Scholares, or Scholars new monastic institutions. This decree, how- of the Valley, so called from their being instiever, seemed to be very little respected, either tuted by the scholares, i. e. the four professors by that pontiff or his successors, since several of divinity in the university of Paris, and from religious orders, hitherto unknown in the Chris- a deep vale in the province of Champagne, in tian world, were not only tolerated, but were which they assembled and fixed their residence distinguished by peculiar marks of approba- in 1234. This society, whose foundation was tion and favour, and enriched with various pri- laid about the commencement of this century, vileges and prerogatives. Nor will this tacit was formerly governed by the rule of St. Auabrogation of the decree of Innocent appear gustin, but is now incorporated into the order at all surprising to such as consider the state of the Regular Canons of St. Genevieve. To of the church in this century; for, not to men- the same class we may refer the order of the tion many enormities that contributed to the blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, suspension of this decree, we shall only ob- which had its commencement in 1266, and serve, that the enemies of Christianity, and was suppressed in 1274;§ the Knights of Faith the heretical sects, increased daily every where; and Charity, who undertook to disperse the and, on the other hand, the secular clergy bands of robbers that infested the public roads were more attentive to their worldly advanta- in France, and who were favoured with the ges than to the interests of the church, and peculiar protection and approbation of Grespent in mirth and jollity the opulence with gory IX; the Hermits of St. William, duke which the piety of their ancestors had enrich- of Aquitaine; not to mention the Brethren ed that sacred body. The monastic orders of the Sack, the Bethlemites, and some orders also had almost all degenerated from their pri- of inferior note, that started up in this centumitive sanctity, and, exhibiting the most of-ry, which, of all others, was the most remarkfensive examples of licentiousness and vice to able for the number and variety of monastic public view, rendered by their flagitious lives establishments, that date their origin from it.** the cause of heresy triumphant, instead of re- XX. Among the convents that were founded tarding its progress. All these things being in this century, and still subsist, the principal considered, it was thought necessary to encour-place is due to that of the Servites, i. e. the age the establishment of new monastic socie-Servants of the blessed Virgin, whose order ties, who, by the sanctity of their manners, might attract the esteem and veneration of the people, and diminish the indignation which the tyranny and ambition of the pontiffs had so generally excited; and who, by their diligence and address, their discourses and their arguments, their power and arms, when these violent means were required, might discover,

* The reasons which they allege for disputing the title of Boniface to the pontificate were, that the resignation of Celestine was not canonical, and that it was brought about by fraudulent means.

†There is a history of this pontiff written by Jo. Rubeus, a Benedictine monk, whose work, which is entitled Bonifacius VIII. e Familia Caietanorum principum Romanus pontifex, was published at Rome in the year 1651.

In this account of the popes, I have chiefly followed Daniel Papebroch, Francis Pagi, and Nuratori, in his Annales Italiæ, consulting at the same time the original sources collected by the last mentioned author in his Rerum Italicarum Scriptores.

was first instituted, A. D. 1233, in Tuscany, by seven Florentine merchants, and afterwards made a great progress under the government of Philip Benizi, its chief. This order, though subjected to the rule of St. Augustin, was erected in commemoration of the most holy

*Helyot His. des Ord. t. vi. p. 152.
† Mat. Paris. His. Maj. p. 161.

Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. iii. p. 15.-Acta
Sanct. Mens. Februar. tom. ii. p. 482.
§ Dion. Sammarthani Gallia Christiana, tom. i. p.

653.

Gallia Christ. tom. i. Append. p. 165.-Martenne, Voyage Liter. de deux Benedictins, tom. ii.

Jo. Bolandi de ordine Eremitar. S. Gulielmi Com. in actis SS. Februar. tom. ii. p. 472.

**Matth. Paris, Hist. Major, p. 815, edit. Watts, where, speaking of the prodigious number of convents, founded in England during this century, he expresseth himself thus: "Tot jam apparuerunt ordines in Anglia, ut ordinum confusio videretur inordinata."

of the church, and abandoned themselves, without either shame or remorse, to all sorts of crimes. On the other hand, the enemies of the church, the sects which had left its com

and conduct, which formed a strong contrast between them and the religious orders, and contributed to render the licentiousness of the latter still more offensive and shocking to the people. These sects maintained, that voluntary poverty was the leading and essential quality in a servant of Christ; obliged their doctors to imitate the simplicity of the apostles; reproached the church with its overgrown opulence, and the vices and corruptions of the clergy, that flowed thence as from their natural source; and, by their commendation of po

widowhood of the blessed Virgin; for which heresy to triumph unrestrained, and the sectareason its monks wear a black habit,* and ob-ries to form various assemblies; in short, they serve several rules unknown to other monaste- were incapable of promoting the true interests ries. The prodigious number of Christians, that were made prisoners by the Mohammedans in Palestine, gave rise, toward the conclusion of the 12th century, to the institution of the order named the Fraternity of the Tri-munion, followed certain austere rules of life nity, which, in the following age, received a still greater degree of stability, under the pontificate of Honorius III. and also of Clement IV. The founders of this institution were John de Matha and Felix de Valois, two pious men who led an austere and solitary life at Cerfroy, in the diocese of Meaux. The monks of this society are called the Brethren of the Holy Trinity, because all their churches are solemnly dedicated to that profound mystery; they are also styled Mathurins, from having a monastery at Paris, erected in a place where is a chapel consecrated to St. Mathurin, and Bre-verty and contempt of riches, acquired a high thren of the Redemption of Captives, because the grand design of their institution was to find out means for restoring liberty to the Christian captives in the Holy Land, in which charitable work they were obliged to employ a third part of their revenue. Their manner of life was, at first, extremely abstemious and austere; but its austerity has been from time to time considerably mitigated by the indulgence and lenity of the pontiffs.‡

degree of respect, and gained a prodigious ascendancy over the minds of the multitude. All this rendered it absolutely necessary to introduce into the church a set of men, who, by the austerity of their manners, their contempt of riches, and the external gravity and sanctity of their conduct and maxims, might resemble those doctors who had gained such reputation to the heretical sects, and who might rise so far above the allurements of worldly profit and XXI. The religious society that surpassed pleasure, as not to be seduced, by the promises all the rest in purity of manners, extent of or threats of kings and princes, from the perfame, number of privileges, and multitude of formance of the duties which they owed to the members, was that of the Mendicant or beg-church, or from persevering in their subordiging friars, whose order was first established in this century, and who, by the tenour of their institution, were to remain entirely destitute of all fixed revenues and possessions. The pre-cordingly he treated such monastic societies as sent state and circumstances of the church rendered the establishment of such an order absolutely necessary. The monastic orders, who wallowed in opulence, were, by the corrupting influence of their ample possessions, lulled in a luxurious indolence. They lost sight of all their religious obligations, trampled upon the authority of their superiors, suffered

* Beside the ordinary writers of monastic history, see Pauli Florentini Dialog. de Origine Ordinis Servorum. in Lamii Delic. Eruditorum, tom. i. p. 1-48.

Broughton and some other writers make a distinction between the Order of the Redemption of Captives, and the Fraternity of the Holy Trinity. They allege, that the latter order was instituted at Rome by St. Philip Neri, in 1548, about 350 years after the first establishment of the former; and that the monks who composed it, were obliged by their vow to take care of the pilgrims who resorted from all parts of the world to Rome, to visit the tombs of

St. Peter and St. Paul.

Beside Helyot and the other writers of monastic history, see Touissaint de Plessis, Hist. de l'Eglise de Meaux, tom. i. p. 172, and 566. Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. ii. p. 523. Ant. Wood, Antiq.

Oxon. tom. i. p. 133. In the ancient records, this society is frequently styled the Order of Asses, on account of the prohibition of the use of horses, which made a part of their rule, and which obliged the mendicant monks to ride upon asses. See Car. du Fresne's Notes upon Joinville's Life of St. Louis, p. 81. But at present, through the indulgence of the Roman pontiffs, they are permitted to make use of horses when they find them necessary. An order of the same kind was instituted in Spain, in 1228, by Paul Nolasco, under the title of the Order of St. Mary, for the Redemption of Captives. See the Acta Sanctorum, Januar. tom. ii. p. 960.

nation to the Roman pontiffs. Innocent III. was the first of the popes who perceived the necessity of instituting such an order; and ac

made a profession of poverty, with the most distinguishing marks of his protection and favour. These associations were also encouraged and patronised by the succeeding pontiffs, when experience had demonstrated their public and extensive utility. But when it became generally known, that they had such a peculiar place in the esteem and protection of the such an enormous and unwieldy multitude, rulers of the church, their number grew to and swarmed so prodigiously in all the European provinces, that they became a burthen, not only to the people, but to the church itself.

XXII. The great inconvenience that arose from the excessive multiplication of the mendicant orders, was remedied by Gregory X., in 1272, in a general council which he assembled at Lyons; for here all the religious orders, that had sprung up after the council holden at Rome in 1215, under the pontificate of Innocent III., were suppressed, and the "extravagant multitude of mendicants," as Gregory called them, were reduced to a smaller number, and confined to the four following societies, or denominations, viz. the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Hermits of St. Augustin.* The Carmelite order,

*Concil. Lugd. II. A. 1274, Can. xxiii. in Jo. Harduini Conciliis, tom. vii. p. 715. "Importuna peten. tium inhiatio Religionum (so were the religious orders entitled) multiplicationem extorsit, verum etiam aliquorum præsumptuosa temeritas diversorum ordinum, præcipue mendicantium. . effrænatam multi.

which had been instituted in Palestine during the preceding century, was, in this, transplanted into Europe, and, in 1226, was favoured by pope Honorius III. with a place among the monastic societies, which enjoyed the protection and approbation of the church. The Hermits of St. Augustin had for their founder Alexander IV., who, observing that the hermits were divided into several societies, some of which followed the maxims of the famous William, others the rule of St. Augustin, while others again were distinguished by different denominations, formed the judicious project of uniting them all into one religious order, and subjecting them to the same rule of discipline, even that which bears the name of St. Augustin. This project was put in execution in the year 1256.

in the eyes of the world. During three centuries, these two fraternities governed, with an almost universal and absolute sway, both state and church, filled the highest posts ecclesiastical and civil, taught in the universities and churches with an authority before which all opposition was silent, and maintained the pretended majesty and prerogatives of the Roman pontiffs against kings, princes, bishops, and heretics, with incredible ardour and equal success. The Dominicans and Franciscans were, before the Reformation, what the Jesuits became after that happy and glorious event, the very soul of the hierarchy, the engines of the state, the secret springs of all the motions of both, and the authors or directors of every great and important event both in the religious and political world. Dominic, a Spaniard by birth, a native of Calaroga, descendant of the illustrious house of Guzman, and regular canon of Osma, a man of a fiery and impetuous temper, and vehemently exasperated by the commotions and contests which the heretics of differ

XXIII. As the pontiffs allowed to these four Mendicant orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thought proper, of conversing with persons of all ranks, of instructing the youth and the multitude wherever they went;and as these monks exhibited, in their out-ent denominations had excited in the church, ward appearance and manner of life, more striking marks of gravity and holiness, than were observable in the other monastic societies, they arose as it were at once to the very summit of fame, and were regarded with the utmost esteem and veneration in all the countries of Europe. The enthusiastic attachment to these sanctimonious beggars went so far, that, as we learn from the most authentic records, several cities were divided, or cantoned out, into four parts, with a view to these four orders; the first part was assigned to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the third to the Carmelites, and the fourth to the Augustinians. The people were unwilling to receive the sacraments from any other hands than those of the Mendicants, to whose churches they crowded to perform their devotions, while living, and were extremely desirous to deposit there also their remains after death; all which occasioned grievous complaints among the ordinary priests, who, being entrusted with the cure of souls, considered themselves as the spiritual guides of the multitude. Nor did the influence and credit of the Mendicants end here; for we find in the history of this and of the succeeding ages, that they were employed, not only in spiritual concerns, but also in temporal and political affairs of the greatest consequence, in composing the differences of princes, concluding treaties of peace, concerting alliances, presiding in cabinet-councils, governing courts, levying taxes, and in other occupations, not merely remote from, but absolutely inconsistent with, the monastic character and profession.

XXIV. We must not however imagine, that all the Mendicant friars attained the same degree of reputation and authority; for the power of the Dominicans and Franciscans surpassed greatly that of the other two orders, and rendered them remarkably conspicuous

set out for France with a few companions, in order to combat the sectaries who had multiplied in that kingdom. This enterprise he executed with the greatest vigour, and, we may add, fury, attacking the Albigenses and the other enemics of the church with the power of eloquence, the force of arms, the subtlety of controversial writings, and the terrors of the inquisition, which owed its form to this violent and sanguinary priest. Passing thence into Italy, he was honoured by the Roman pontiff's Innocent III. and Honorius III. with the most distinguished marks of their protection and favour; and, after many labours in the cause of the church, obtained from them the privilege of erecting a new fraternity, whose principal objects were the extirpation of error and the destruction of heretics. The first rule which he adopted for this society was that of the Canons of St. Augustin, to which he added several austere precepts and observances. But he afterwards changed the discipline of the canons for that of the monks; and, holding a chapter of the order at Bologna in 1220, he obliged the brethren to take a vow of absolute poverty, and to abandon all their revenues and possessions. He did not live long enough to see the consequences of this reformation; for he died in the following year at Bologna.* His monks were, at first, distinguished by the denomination of preaching friars, because public instruction was the main end of their institution; but, in honour of him, they were afterwards called Dominicans. [ Just before in the Bullarium Romanum, tom. i. p. 110.-See also Acta Sanctor. Mens. Feb. tom. ii. p. 472.

*See Jac. Echard and Quetif in Scriptoribus Ord Dominic. tom. i. p. 84.-Acta Sanctor. April, tom i. p. 872-Nicol. Jansenii Vita S. Dominici. Add to these the long list of writers mentioned by Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Lat. med. Ævi, tom. ii. p. 137, and also Antonii Bremondi Bullarium Ordinis

Dominicani.

The Dominicans are called Fratres Majores in several of the ancient records: see Ant. Matthæi Analecta vet. Evi. t. ii. p. 172. This appellation, however, by which the Dominicans were set in opposition to the Franciscans, who called themselves Fratres Minores, was rather a term of derision than a real name. -In France the Dominicans were

his death, Dominic sent Gilbert de Fresnoy || ciscans came into England in the reign of with twelve of the brethren into England, Henry III., and their first establishment was at where they founded their first monastery at Canterbury.] Oxford, in 1221, and, soon after, another at London. In 1276, the mayor and aldermen || of London gave them two whole streets near the river Thames, where they erected a very commodious convent, whence that place still bears the name of Black-Friars; for so the Dominicans were called in England.]

XXVI. These two orders restored the church from that declining condition in which it had been languishing for many years, by the zeal and activity with which they set themselves to discover and extirpate heretics, to undertake various negotiations and embassies for the interest of the hierarchy, and to confirm the wavering multitude in an implicit obedience to the Roman pontiffs. These spiritual rulers, on the other hand, sensible of their obligations to the new monks, which, no doubt, were very great, not only engaged them in the most im

eminent stations in the church, but also accumulated upon them employments and privileges, which, if they enriched them on the one hand, could not fail to render them odious on the other, and to excite the envy and complaints of other ecclesiastics. Such (among many other extraordinary prerogatives) was the permission they received from the pontiffs, of preaching to the multitude, hearing confessions, and pronouncing absolution, without any license from the bishops, and even without consulting them; to which we may add the treasure of ample and extensive indulgences, whose distribution was committed by the popes to the Franciscans, as a means of subsistence, and a rich indemnification for their voluntary poverty. These acts of liberality and marks of protection, lavished upon the Dominican and Franciscan friars with such an ill-judged profusion, as they overturned the ancient discipline of the church, and were a manifest encroachment upon the rights of the first and second orders of the ecclesiastical rulers, produced the most unhappy and bitter dissensions between the Mendicant orders and the bishops And these dissensions, extending their contagious influence beyond the limits of the church, excited in all the European provinces, and

XXV. Francis, the founder of the celebrated order that bears his name, was the son of a merchant of Assisi, in the province of Umbria, and led, in his youth, a most debauched and dissolute life. Upon his recovery from a severe fit of sickness, which was the conse-portant affairs, and raised them to the most quence and punishment of his licentious conduct, he changed his method of living, and, as extremes are natural to men of warm imaginations, fell into an extravagant kind of devotion, that looked less like religion than alienation of mind. Some time after this, he happened to be in a church, where he heard that passage of the Scripture repeated, in which Christ addresses his apostles in the following manner: “Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves; for the workman is worthy of his meat." This produced a powerful effect upon his mind, made him consider a voluntary and absolute poverty as the essence of the Gospel and the soul of religion, and prescribe this poverty as a sacred rule both to himself and to the few who followed him. Such was the commencement of the famous Franciscan order, whose chief was undoubtedly a pious and well-meaning man, though grossly ignorant, and manifestly weakened in his intellect by the disorder from which he had recently recovered. Nevertheless the new society, which appeared to Innocent III. extremely adapted to the present state of the church, and proper to restore its declining credit, was solemnly approved and confirmed by Honorius III., in 1223, and had already made a considerable progress when its devout founder, in 1226, was called from this life. Francis, through an excessive humility, would not suffer the monks of his order to be called Fratres, i. e. brethren or friars, but Fraterculi, i. e. little brethren or friars-minors, by which denomination_they continue to be distinguished.§ [ The Fran

called Jacobins, from the Rue de St. Jaques, where their first convent was erected at Paris.

* In 1208. † Matthew x. 9, 10. They were called Fratricelli by the Italians, Freres Mineurs by the French, and Fratres Minores by the Latin writers.

Bonaventura wrote a life of St. Francis, which has passed through several editions. But the most ample and circumstantial accounts of this extraor dinary man are given by Luke Wadding, in the first volume of his Annal. Ord. Min. a work which contains a complete history of the Franciscan order, confirmed by a great number of authentic records, and the best edition of which is that published at Rome in 1731, and the following years, in eighteen volumes in folio, by Joseph Maria Fonseca ab Ebora. It is to the same Wadding that we are obliged for the Oposcula Sti. Francisci, and the Bibliotheca Or. dinis Minorum, the former of which appeared at Antwerp in 1623, and the latter at Rome in 1650. The other writers, who have given accounts of the Franciscan order, are mentioned by Jo. Alb. FabriVOL. 1.-45

cius, in his Bibliotheca Lat. medii Ævi, tom. ii. p.

573.

*The popes were so infatuated with the Franciscans, that those whom they could not employ more honourably in their civil negotiations or domestic affairs, they made their publicans, beadles, &c. See, for a confirmation of this, the following passages in the Histor. Major of Matthew Paris Fratres Minores et Prædicatores (says he) invitos, ut credimus, jam suos fecit dominus papa, non sine ordinis eorum læsione et scandalo, teloniarios et bedellos,' p. 634. Non cessavit papa pecuniam aggregare, faciens de Fratribus Prædicatoribus, et Minoribus, etiam invitis, non jam piscatoribus hominum, sed nummorum,' p. 639. Erant Minores et Prædicatores magnatum consiliatores et nuntii, etiam domini pape secretarii; nimis in hoc gratiam sibi secula. rem comparantes;' ad an. 1236, p. 354.- Facti sunt eo tempore Prædicatores et Minores regum consiliarii et nuntii speciales, ut sicut quondam mollibus induti in domibus regum erant, ita tune qui vilibus vestiebantur in domibus, cameris, et palatiis essent principum;' ad an. 1239, p. 465.

† See Baluzii Miscellan. tom. iv. p. 490, tom. vii. p. 392.-It is well known, that no religious order had the distribution of so many and such ample indulgences as the Franciscans. Nor could these good friars live and multiply as they did, without some source of profit, since, by their institution, they were to be destitute of revenues and possessions of every kind. It was therefore in the place of fixed revenues, that such lucrative indulgences were put into their hands.